Voltairine De Cleyre Quotes

There is no peace now, and there will never be peace, so long as one rules over another.

I never expect men to give us liberty. No, women, we are not worth it until we take it.

I die, as I have lived, a free spirit, an Anarchist, owing no allegiance to rulers, heavenly or earthly.

I think it can be shown that the law makes ten criminals where it restrains one.

There is no society for the prevention of cruelty to women.

A standing army is a standing menace to liberty.

Speak, speak, speak, & remember that whenever anyone's liberty to speak is denied, your liberty is denied also, & your place is where the attack is.

... it is better to study how to live rather than how to die; ... it is better to have a religion of deeds rather than a religion of creeds; ... it is better to work for humanity than for God.

There is one common struggle against those who have appropriated the earth, the money, and the machines.

The question of souls is old—we demand our bodies, now. We are tired of promises, god is deaf, and his church is our worst enemy.

A right , in the abstract, is a fact ; it is not a thing to be given, established, or conferred; it is. Of the exercise of a right power may deprive me; of the right itself, never.

As long as the working-people fold hands and pray the gods in Washington to give them work, so long they will not get it.

Private enterprise manages better all that to which it is equal. Anarchism declares that private enterprise, whether individual or cooperative, is equal to all the undertakings of society.

Is it not enough that 'things are cruel and blind'? Must we also be cruel and blind?

Capitalistic Anarchism ? Oh, yes, if you choose to call it so. Names are indifferent to me; I am not afraid of bugaboos. Let it be so, then, capitalistic Anarchism.

As to the American tradition of non-meddling, Anarchism asks that it be carried down to the individual himself.

[The Catholic convent] had been like the Valley of the Shadow of Death, and there are white scars on my soul, where ignorance and superstition burnt me with their hell fire in those stifling days.